The kidnappings appear to have happened in villages where residents took up arms against IS – and the women are being held separately from the men in IS-controlled Tal Afar, east of Mount Sinjar. Some 200,000 people escaped to safety in Iraq’s Kurdish region, but others remain on the mountain. Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s senior crisis response adviser, told the Agence France-Presse news agency: ‘The victims are of all ages, from babies to elderly men and women. It seems they took away entire families, all those who did not manage to flee. We fear the men may have been executed.’

Two women – Leila Khalaf and Wadhan Khalaf – were among those kidnapped from Mujamma Jazira village, said their relative Dakhil Atto Solo. He added that the abductions happened after residents tried to resist the IS attack, telling AFP: ‘Of course we tried to defend our villages, but they had much bigger weapons. All we had were our Kalashnikovs. They executed 300 men, and took the women to their prisons. Only God can save them now.’ Their children, said Mr Solo, were rescued by the family. But the women were in a house surrounded by IS. We had to escape. Now, the children cry for their mothers all the time. “Mama, mama,” they wail. But there is no mama, we tell them.’

His comments on the dire situation came as Islamic extremists shot dead scores of Yazidi men, lining them up in small groups and opening fire with assault rifles before seizing their wives and children. A Yazidi politician cited the mass killing in Kocho as evidence that his people were still at risk after a week of US and Iraqi air strikes on the militants.

This round-up by ISIS is probably under the same definition of “tolerance” liberals use, a tolerance that is reserved ONLY for people who tow the same line.